"Hey, miss, miss! Give us your Knock Knock, your Knock Knock!"
"Sure, let's add each other first. There are still lots of principles I don't understand that I'd love to research with you~!"
"Sure, sure! Add me first! Me, me!"
"Me, me, me!"
"Brothers, calm down! This isn't the time to get fired up!"
"Enough, all of you!!!"
Finally, after a tremendous struggle, Koleda and the other two managed to separate Grace from the three machines.
Ben ran farther and farther away with Grace in his arms, while Koleda and Anton held back the three machines trying to make her stay.
Red One reached out dramatically. "No~! Beautiful, lovely lady~!"
Anton blocked him. "Brother, don't spend too much time with her! It's dangerous!"
Blue Two said, "I'll know whether it's dangerous after I try."
Koleda said, "She'll take you apart and dig out your hearts and guts!"
"So what? I'd bare my heart and guts to her right now!" Red One said.
"Besides, where did you come from, you little brat? Don't stop me! I haven't even added her on Knock Knock yet!"
Koleda said, "Who are you calling a little brat? I'm not a little brat! I'm the president! The president of Belobog Heavy Industries!"
"Huh? You're the president? Isn't it that bear Thiren?" Blue Two, who had been pleased about adding her on Knock Knock, froze and asked in confusion.
"Even your company logo uses his face."
Koleda tried hard to explain. "That's for some other reasons, but I really am the president!"
Yellow Three said, "Young. Cute. President."
Koleda said, "What are you talking about?"
"Ignore him. That's just how he talks... Hey, hey, hey! Where are you going? Where are you going to wait for us?"
Red One watched as the Iron Guards who had been backing the three of them up ignored him and packed up their things. Leaving only a briefcase containing the contracts behind, they all drove away.
Even the luxury car that had brought the three of them abruptly sucked its red carpet back under its chassis and drove off with the others.
"Tch, seriously. What's the rush? They didn't even leave us a car. I don't remember there being that many orders lately."
Red One muttered to himself, but since Ben had carried Grace out of sight and he was temporarily a commander without an army, he could only sigh and turn back to force Blue Two to share her Knock Knock contact with him.
Only now did they begin to take a proper look at the president of the company they were about to invest in, though they still put on no airs whatsoever.
Red One said, "Hello. I'm Red One, a representative from the TOPS Security and Guard Department. Our master sent me to sign an investment contract with you."
Blue Two said, "Same as him. My name's Blue Two."
Yellow Three said, "Yellow Three."
Koleda said, "Hello. I'm the president of Belobog Heavy Industries, Koleda. Koleda Belobog. We're very glad to have you here. This is Anton beside me."
Anton greeted them enthusiastically too. "Anton Ivanov. You can call me Anton or brother. Great to meet you, my three brothers!"
"Hello, hello." ×3
Blue Two said, "And what about that lady just now? She came with you too, right?"
Koleda said, "...Her name's Grace. She's our technical expert and my big sister. I'd advise you to stay away from her."
"Mm-hmm." ×3
Red One put on a bashful expression and ventured, "Then could you please share your sister's Knock Knock contact with me, our adorable president?"
Yellow Three took out his phone too. "Same."
Annoyed at Red One describing her as adorable, Koleda pretended she hadn't heard and continued on her own.
"There's also Ben Bigger. He's our accountant, and the bear Thiren who just carried Grace away to put her somewhere for now."
Red One didn't mind at all. "Okay, okay. Then could you please..."
Koleda frowned and interrupted with a very serious expression.
"We can discuss pointless trivia later. Let's talk business about the investment first."
"Aw, fine."
Seeing Koleda's attitude, Red One and Yellow Three could only give up for the moment and turn to retrieve the briefcase prepared in advance.
Red One said, "Here. The contract for this investment. Our master told us to bring it over to sign."
Blue Two said, "In addition, we need to conduct an on-site inspection of your company's technical capabilities and working methods."
Yellow Three said, "Master. Requested. Tour."
Red One said, "Ugh, what a pain. I really wish we could just sign and leave instead of wasting time here."
Blue Two said, "Look at it another way. We can also visit Miss Grace's workshop while we're at it."
Red One said, "When you put it that way, that doesn't sound bad~."
Yellow Three said, "...Acceptable. Wonderful."
"...A tour's a tour. What are you three mumbling about?"
Koleda began to wonder whether these three intelligent constructs had ever taken the forbidden fruit test. After having Anton take the briefcase, she continued.
"I'll have Ben go through these contracts carefully before making a decision. Come with me for now. I'll show you around."
Anton said, "Huh? President, shouldn't that be my job?"
"Anton, don't you still have work to do over in the dormitory area? You can take this to Ben on the way too."
Koleda said, "Ben should've taken Grace to the workshop by now... Oh, whatever. I'll just take the three of them around. Go get on with your work!"
"...Okay, whatever you say, President. I'll leave them to you, then!"
Anton took the briefcase and patted it.
"I'll take this to Ben to look over. On the way, I'll check whether those slackers are hiding in the bathroom playing games again!"
Koleda said, "Mm-hmm. We can't slack off at work."
The scene seemed to remind Red One of something, and he remarked to Blue Two and Yellow Three with inexplicable feeling.
"Cracking down on slacking, huh? Oh my, now that I think about it, the three of us hardly ever slack off at work~."
Blue Two exposed him mercilessly. "Right. After all, we just skip work outright. We never slack off."
Yellow Three said, "Haha."
Koleda and Anton said, "...!?!!?"
What were they talking about?
"Grace, let's get this straight first. If you run into those three gentlemen again, you absolutely, absolutely have to restrain yourself."
After carrying Grace back to her workshop, Ben earnestly stressed this to her.
Grace said, "Oh, I know, Big Ben. How could I possibly pull their clothes open in broad daylight, pry open their shells, unscrew their screws, and inspect their..."
Unwittingly slipping into a fantasy, Grace strayed further and further off track as she spoke and began drooling. Her words made Ben tremble in fright.
"Hey! No, no, no! Grace, you'd better stay here for now. They're here for TOPS's investment. We can't afford any carelessness!"
With her true thoughts exposed, Grace still tried acting cute to salvage things. "Don't be like that, Big Ben~! I really can restrain myself~! Really~!"
The experienced Ben had long since become immune to this effect and flatly refused. After earnestly urging Grace a few more times to stay here, he went out.
Grace sighed helplessly. Faced with her guardian's uncompromising attitude, she could only give in.
"Come on, didn't I restrain myself back there? Ah, what a shame..."
The only reasons were that she hadn't brought her tools and couldn't fend off the three enthusiastic brothers taking turns locking her down with their self-introductions, so her underlying code hadn't triggered.
Grace said, "Still, I don't know if I'm imagining it, but they feel like that gentleman I ran into (followed) on the street last time... Never mind. I'll go wash my face and freshen up."
What she didn't know, however, was that an intermittent but extremely well-concealed unknown signal was actually emanating from the Hollow not far away, near their construction site.
And Grace, who was heading to the bathroom to wash her face, also failed to notice in time that the three children she had recently developed (intelligent heavy construction machinery for use in Hollows) were receiving these unknown signals, their bodies beginning to run their startup programs.